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2 More Shocking DecisionsIt is not only state, county and city police who are rocked back on their heels by two more arrogant rulings of the U.S. Supreme court. The fedreal government’s own law-enforcement arm—the Department of Justice, which embraces the FBI—has come out swinging hardest against opinions which affront law and order in this land.Both decisions must have been shocking as witness the fact that the top “liberal” of the court—Chief Justice Earl Warren himself—was moved to dissent in eachcase, albeit he stood alone.* * •Knocked out seven to one was the long-standing rule requiring professional gamblers to register and pay a federal tax because, the court said, this “would be self-incrimination” and could lead to their prosecution under U.S. and state laws against commercial gambling. Now wouldn’t that just be terrible!Refusing, to his credit, to join his colleagues, Justice Warren confessed he was “puzzled” by their philosophy.The head judge went further:Congress can tax racketeers, he noted, “only by requiring them to emerge from the dark shadows of the underworld.” Indeed, he added, “it seems to me that the very secrecy which surrounds the business of gamblers demands disclosure.”Interviewed cn his reaction to the decision, Henry E. Petersen, chief of the Justice department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering section, answered with a significant question: “What can you say when a man has his right arm cut off?”• * •In a companion ruling, the learned bench voted eight to one to junk the law forcing registration of ownership of gangster weapons such as machine guns and sawed-off shotguns.The reasoning in the latter case was the same—that such registration would necessitate hoodlums’ giving evidence against themselves.What law-abiding private citizen has any legitimate excuse for possessing such violence-prone firepower?This perverted and wanton intervention in .support of the feloneous element is contemptuous of decent society and makes a farce out of President Johnson’s crusade against nationwide violence and cnme.And not only guardians of the law further shackled but the honest citizenry is left helpless.And watch the mobsters thumb their noses and scurry jubilantly to the sanctuary of the flowing black robes.
Newspaper Details
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur, Texas, US
Thu, Feb 01, 1968
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Madison H.
NA, 25 May 2023
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